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1. |
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No matter how sweet
The love that flows
Nature hangs her head
Because she knows
Even the gentlest breeze
With time corrodes
This love’s gone down
A thousand roads
Alone we both
Thought we could stay
'Til love knocked on
Our door one day
Held out her hand
And we both followed
This love's gone down
A thousand roads
We hopped on board
And she led us blind
All our past lovers
Swung on behind
When would we buckle
Under the load?
This love's gone down
A thousand roads
No matter how sweet
The love that flows
Nature hangs her head
Because she knows
Even the gentlest breeze
With time corrodes
This love’s gone down
A thousand roads
We could fill a train
With all our dreams
But these old wheels
Are out of steam
Up until now
They have never slowed
This love's gone down
A thousand roads
In a far off mirror
At the end of the trail
Two dreamless beggars
Growing frail
We both returned
The hearts we had borrowed
This love's gone down
A thousand roads
No matter how sweet
The love that flows
Nature hangs her head
Because she knows
Even the gentlest breeze
With time corrodes
This love’s gone down
A thousand roads
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2. |
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I left town age eighteen
Left the northern lights of Aberdeen
I went far enough from home
To find a place to call my own
Will you keep the home fires burning
While this big bad world keeps turning
While I go and dig for gold
And you shelter from the cold
Mum and dad had seen it all
Warned of all the ways that I may fall
Told me tales of people lost
Voyagers who’d paid the cost
Will you keep the home fires burning
Will you pray for my returning
That I will weather all the storms
Down this rocky road I’m on
Then one year
I came back and found
My old school
Flattened to the ground
The tree we first
Kissed beneath was gone
Taken by the last big storm
Will you keep the home fires burning
While the wheels of time are turning
For all the things that break and bend
Love will last until the end
I left town age eighteen
Left the northern lights of Aberdeen
It’s now been years I’ve been away
Now mum and dad are old and grey
But they keep the home fires burning
For they know my heart is yearning
And though the pipes may always play
They’ll call me home but I can’t stay
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3. |
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The horse wears blinders so he can’t see to the side
A woman is veiled to make a worthy bride
You can’t catch two fish on the same line
The man who loves too much will lose every time
He who shoots straight but always looks away
He without faith but prays every day
If it bears no fruit it’s cut from the vine
The man who loves too much will lose every time
You can’t win a woman by showing your tears
The louder you shout, the less people hear
The heavier the heart, the harder the climb
The man who loves too much will lose every time
He says he doesn’t love you but he always asks for more
He invites you to a bed he’s made up by the door
He’ll read you the rules but he won’t let you sign
The man who loves too much will lose every time
Every cell will perish and all will be replaced
Memory will be passed on to a brand new face
She caught you looking for the past in an empty glass of wine
The man who loves too much will lose every time
The light will blind you if you stare too long
The heart will break if it feels too strong
Adam bit the apple and he died in his prime
The man who loves too much will lose every time
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4. |
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We met by shore
On the last summer’s evening
There we fell in love
As the sky burnt down
I should have told her there and then
That I loved her
The girl from the seaside town
Back on Craigie Hill
Trees fell by the roadside
They’d warned of a storm
That ripped trees from the ground
Then on new year’s eve
She would come to see me
The girl from the seaside town
With frost under our feet
We both felt so much older
They’d boarded up the street
And the world was upside down
We spent the night
Searching for the summer splendour
The girl from the seaside town
She spoke of moving through
Working selling flowers
Back home the rent was due
And no jobs were to be found
I just got scared and said
“We’re only summer lovers”
The girl from the seaside town
Then a letter came
She was living round the corner
She never called it love
But they had settled down
From then on I’d often see her holding flowers
The girl from the seaside town
Then one day she’d gone
And no one seemed to know where
I went back to the shore
And there I wrote this vow
If I see her again
I will tell her that I love her
And promise I will never let her down
The girl from the seaside town
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5. |
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Bombs fell on your house
Wiped out the whole street
You grab what you can
You’re out on your feet
The bombs keep falling
It’s raining stones
You keep on running
Stripped to the bone
Gave all your money to a smuggler
Boat leaves in the night
Across the dark ocean
Out of the coastguard’s sight
You get to the other side
They can’t send you home
You're stuck in no man’s land
Stripped to the bone
Barbed wire fence
Rivers of mud
Damp rots your feet
Screams chill your blood
You got to jump the fence
Dog’s teeth and mouth foam
Took the flesh from your leg
Stripped to the bone
Laying on a park bench
Dirty hands and bare feet
Sleeping in the doorway
In the rain and sleet
Going where the begging is good
Nowhere to call home
All out of favours
Stripped to the bone
All in a shopping trolley
And plastic bags
One man’s rubbish
Another man’s rags
Washing in the river
Wake with the dawn
Sleep beneath a bridge
Stripped to the bone
What man can endure
Like many men hence
The temple of Zeus
I see through the fence
Surviving earthquakes
A spine of lead and stone
Well I’m still standing too
Stripped to the bone
If this is a man
Then so it be
He’s just as often here
As he’s prospering and free
It must be nature’s law
To be high on a throne
Then to fall so low
Stripped to the bone
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6. |
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Like the river running
who knows where
Down from the hills
so brown and bare
My love was here
and now she’s gone
I am left here in this barren lands
With nothing in my tired old hands
I shake my head and carry on
I spent so long sifting gold
Cheating death and growing old
Then I found a jewel deep in the soil
And shuffled off this mortal coil
Down by the stream I wash my face
I try to wipe out every trace
It’s better now I know you’re gone
So hard to carry a heavy heart
A burden since we had to part
I would have had no chance
to carry on
I spent so long sifting gold
Cheating death and growing old
Then I found a jewel deep in the soil
And shuffled off this mortal coil
She shared with me a flash of bliss
And paired with me for a parting kiss
The end was here before the start
You will go on to inspire those
Like me who’s hearts had almost froze
The greatest gift tho’ we had to part
I spent so long sifting gold
Cheating death and growing old
Then I found a jewel deep in the soil
And shuffled off this mortal coil
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7. |
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The only war that’s worth the blood
And all the marching in the mud
Is one where neither side can deny
They’ve made a better world for you and I
Put yourself in the another’s shoes
You’ll see when you win, another will lose
Fortune will come and go like the tide
I’m on your side
Like the Chinese emperor’s famous plight
That he’d rid his enemies over night
And in the morn’ his council could not believe
To see his foes come round for tea
Put yourself in another’s place
You’ll find yourself easier to face
And in your foes you may confide
I’m on your side
And in my very own street, a man named Wag
His once fine suits all turned to rags
He recalls the war and the men he fought
And how they’re the only friends he’s got
Ally yourself with another’s words
And suddenly they don’t seem so absurd
You’ll find that truths are just like lies
I’m on your side
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8. |
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I don't want to set the world on fire
I don't want to climb any higher
I just want to get a little word
In the newspaper I used to deliver, something like:
"Local boy done good"
I don't want to compete down there
So much noise in the air
That even when you can win one's ear
There's such a din
that they'll never really hear you
But I still want to do good
I just want to be
a hero in my hometown
Get a little hello
when I come back around
I just want to be understood
For my old next door neighbour to say: "The boy’s done good"
I don't want to be a millionaire
I don't want my name lit up
in Time square
I don't want to be big in Japan
People coming to my grave like Elvis in Graceland
But I still want to do good
I just want to play your living room
Sitting round a campfire
playing my tunes
Singing my songs on a Paris street
Or in the little bar
where the locals meet
And it's gonna be sweet
I just want to be
a hero in my hometown
I don’t wanna let my parents down
The only thing I wanted
since my childhood
Was for my mum and my dad to say:
"Our boy’s done good"
And then one day
when I'm dead and gone
I don't need to be talked about
for all that long
Maybe a couple of words spoken by the grave, something like:
"He was honest and he was brave and he worked hard,
and the boy done good"
I just want to be
a hero in my hometown
I won’t need much
when I’m dead in the ground
Maybe a couple of friends
gathered around
And maybe a little sign made of wood
That says, something like:
"The boy done good"
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9. |
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Everytime we fall in love
It goes a little deeper
Everything we’re dreaming of
Comes into view
The sun falls softly to the sea
Makes a bed for you and me
And all the gods sleep soundly now
Knowing you are in my arms
There’s a place true love hides
Right between the sea and sky
Far beyond the heavy storms
A little rain for you and I
Tears will come when love begins
And tears will come when old love ends
We are on the run from our old lives
We no longer recognise
What we’ve become
Thunder’s just a party trick
The gods just love to play with it
But they spend most of their time
On love like this
For we try to guard our hearts
And hide away in other arts
Our fate is resting in their hands
Whatever their plans
Tears will come when love begins
And tears will come when old love ends
We are on the run from darker times
But we can weather what they send
They can have their fun
Join me now in a bow
To the gods that gave us this
We sow our seeds and watch in vain
Offer gifts and pray for rain
Tears will come when love begins
And tears will come when old love ends
We are on the run to see the rain
Oh my and how it came
And how it came
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10. |
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Hold me high and send me low
For it is time for me to go
And in my eyes you’ll see no tears
For I have lived one hundred years
Before you throw the ropes below
And fan the soil from head to toe
I’ll turn my tongue, be balladeer
And sing a song of one hundred years
I was born when horses pulled the plough
And marriage held by but a vow
A beggar’s hand assumed sincere
Much has changed these hundred years
An early age, behind the mule
An equal grip on books in school
A mighty fleet I’d commandeer
To sail me through one hundred year
So hold me high and send me low
For it is time for me to go
And in my eyes you’ll see no tears
For I have lived one hundred years
I took my boat on the stormy sea
Never I’d dreamt of one like thee
On a nearby shore you did appear
To sail me through one hundred years
A daughter’s care, a quarter share
The loyal son, I had a pair
My every word they would revere
To make me proud for a hundred years
Hold me high and send me low
For it is time for me to go
And in my eyes you’ll see no tears
For I have lived one hundred years
Brides and grooms and baby booms
A sea of smiles splashed through the room
And through the years, be it smile or tears
I’d hold dear all hundred years
I’ll hold you all deep in my heart
Fondly filling every part
And as I watch you disappear
I’ll recall all hundred years
Hold me high and send me low
For it is time for me to go
And in my eyes you’ll see no tears
For I have lived one hundred years
And as I watch you disappear
Sing a song of one hundred years
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11. |
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Got off the train, walked to my house
Long after everyone had all moved out
Knocked on the door, a stranger came
I held out my hand and gave my name
It meant little to him
And when I asked if I’d come in
I imagined my mother
At the top of the stairs
And the words she’d always say
Welcome home
Welcome home
Lay down your bags
Take off your coat
Welcome home
Dinner’s on the stove
Welcome home
And I woke from this dream
And it was not what it seemed
I was at home, I heard people
Just like it’d always been
I went down to the kitchen
They sitting round the tree
There was mum and dad, big sister
And babies at my feet
Welcome Home…
And just to sit there between them
And watch the children play
The more they pass, the more I savour
Each and every day
Christmas lights at the window
And it was pitch black by four
But there was little reason
To step out that door
Welcome home…
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Recorded as a live concert at The Old Church, Stoke Newington, London on Thursday 8th December 2023.
Adam Beattie (vocals, guitars)
Fiona Bevan (vocals, double bass)
Mikey Kenney (violin, vocals)
Chris Jones (drums, percussion)
Zac Gvi (accordion, saxophone, bass clarinet, clarinet)
